


Break the surface

by VolunteerFieryDantooinian



Category: Star Wars Rebels
Genre: Ezra can't swim, Ezra makes bad decisions, Force Usage, Gen, Grunkle Spacedad, Idk what planet this is on, Kanan worries, Senseless Bullying, but it's gross, it isn't Lothal or Kaller, near-drowning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-28 16:22:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6335968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolunteerFieryDantooinian/pseuds/VolunteerFieryDantooinian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was meant to be a routine mission, it really was, but between Ezra's inability to swim and his habit for attracting trouble, it was only a matter of time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I got this idea from Nuro-Chan on tumblr. A while back they posted about how they wanted something where Kasmir rescued Ezra and they had cool adventures and were cool?? So I decided to be the light this goddamn fandom needs right now and write this thing.

It was a routine supply run on some backwater planet, just your average day for Ezra Bridger. No inquisitors. Nothing would go wrong, Ezra thought to himself, even if they did have to split. It was the most logical decision, anyways. They hadn't gotten much accomplished, and could cover more ground separately. Nothing should go wrong, right?

 

"Alright, we need to split up." Ezra exclaimed. "We aren't getting anywhere."

Kanan gave him the look that signified "You're right, but I said the same thing literally 5 minutes ago", and sighed.

"Ezra, I trust you on your own. Sabine, you're coming with me." Kanan instructed, and Sabine nodded.

"Good luck." The mandolorian gave Ezra a slight grin, and they headed off in their respective directions. Hopefully nothing would go wrong this time.

Ezra casually walked down the crowded streets, weaving through the crowd expertly.

The buildings on this planet were tall and pressed together, a bit dingy, and the streets were made of odd, mismatched stone. It was usually cold and damp, the sky overcast with clouds.

Ezra shivered a little. Everything was muted here, all in dull, earthy shades. It was like if Lothal had been faded away, and then changed the shapes of the buildings, but only a little. It was much wetter, too, and they were actually quite near the main tributary of the river.

He, deep in thought, accidentally bumped into someone, rather hard, and turned to apologize.

 

Oh, kriffing hell.

 

The person he had bumped into just happened to be a thoroughly angered, huge teenager, who promptly grabbed Ezra by the collar and slammed him against the nearest wall, arm pressed against his throat.

"What's your problem, punk?" The boy snarled, and Ezra gulped, currently at a loss for words.

"Uh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to run into you!" He squeaked, trying to calculate his way out of this. Words didn't seem like too much of an option at this point, and he certainly couldn't mind-trick the guy. Not when he wasn't at all focused, or likely even strong enough to do so.

"Well, I think you need to be taught a lesson."

The teenager kicked Ezra hard in the ribs, then began leading him somewhere briskly. He knew if he struggled he would just find himself injured more. 

When they reached the waterfront, Ezra's heart dropped.

He struggled, trying to squirm his way out of the teen's grip, but it was too tight. All he got was a punch to the face, and he was then shoved unceremoniously to the ground. He'd twisted his ankle on landing.

The much larger teenager grabbed Ezra by the collar and violently shoved him under the water.

He screamed soundlessly, thrashing hard, and was brought back up for a second, then thrust right back under. It hurt, and he almost sucked down water, trying not to breathe it in and failing somewhat. He was so cold, and he knew he had been underwater for too long. 

His lungs felt like they were going to burst, aching and fiery. He coughed and sucked in water, gasping for air desperately. He reached for his comm, pressing down and trying to gasp out a distress signal, anything, and he wasn't sure if he was able to before he went under yet again.

"Hey, you, let that kid go!" Ezra barely heard someone yell, and the jerk trying to drown him complied.

The problem with this was, where they had been, the water was surprisingly deep, and Ezra, in his flailing attempts to weakly try and get away, fell backwards and into the water below.

He screamed as he hit the water, cracking his head on a rock as he thrashed wildly. He tried to mentally contact Kanan through the force, but his thoughts were too muddled.

He desperately tried to break the surface, clawing at the water, but to no avail. The water was dark and rough around him, stinging his eyes and tossing him back and forth, back and forth. He couldn't breathe, and he was so, so scared. 

It was all a tumultuous, dark gray, mixed with green and blue, and the water was cold and dirty. Slowly he started to sink, and then his body decided it needed air, stat, and he automatically took in a huge gasp of the stinging, brackish water.

After that, there was only darkness.

 

\----

 

The Kallerian had seem the kid fall in, and brushed it off, knowing he could probably swim, that he would be fine. That is, until it had been almost a minute, and the kid hadn't resurfaced.

He cursed and decided that he couldn't let the kid die, which he wouldn't do anyways, obviously, a man has to have boundaries. So he jumped in, opening his eyes and looking around briskly.

It was a little while before he spotted the boy in the murky gloom. He was sinking, eyes closed, and it certainly didn't look good. He frantically swam towards the teenager, looping an arm around his waist and kicking his way to the surface. 

He didn't struggle or stir when they broke the surface, which was definitely a bad, bad sign, and his heart dropped. _Kriff, let the kid live, come on_ , he thought to himself.

A kid about this age didn't die, pretty similar circumstances, but that was years ago.

 

Maybe they're similar, he thought.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In short, Ezra is disappointed when he finds he isn't dead, and Kanan worries.

Ezra Bridger was mildly disappointed and very much in pain when he awoke.

Then, to make matters worse, he realized he couldn't breathe whatsoever, struggling and choking and trying to scream because he couldn't tell if he was still underwater, and sheer terror filled his veins and lit his nerves on fire.

Something hit him between the shoulder blades and suddenly he was coughing, sharp, painful hacks wracking his slight, shivering frame. His vision was blurry and he couldn't see who pulled him out, but he hoped to hell it was Kanan or another one of the crew that came to his aid, because he was in pretty bad shape right now, and for him, showing weakness around strangers was almost inexcusable.

He coughed painfully and disgustingly cold, dirty water pushed its way past his throat and onto the ground in front of him. He felt desperately, horribly ill, and his vision was spinning and blurring.

"He's alive! The kid's alive, thank the force.." Someone gasped, and he vaguely recognized the voice as the one of the stranger that had stopped him from being hurt worse by that tyrannical bully. Not Kanan, not one of the crew.

Honestly, Ezra could care less at this point, because although he felt horrible, he was breathing, and that was something, wasn't it?

With that last thought in his head, he slipped into oblivion.

 

\----

 

Kanan gasped when the sheer panic began to flood through him, and he shuddered a little. Something was very, very wrong, and he had a feeling that it was about Ezra. He realized there was an odd feeling in his chest, like he couldn't breathe, and he swayed on his feet.

"Kanan, I said, what's wrong? You're as white as a sheet." He barely heard Sabine's worried inquiry, and knew that he was probably hyperventilating. "Kanan, answer me!"

"I-There's something wrong with Ezra." His voice was shaky, far too shaky, and Sabine gently put her hand on his arm.

"Ezra can wait. We need to hurry, and we're almost back to the Ghost. Kanan, just try and breathe, alright? He's going to be fine, he's a resourceful kid." She said softly, and he tried to shake off the rising, jumbled fear to get back sooner.

They were walking up the loading ramp when the panic spiked.

Then, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Ezra had gone completely off the radar.

His eyes widened and he let out a little cry of "No!", the fear and panic now completely his own. Suddenly he found himself falling, and heard somebody swear. Then Hera managed to catch him, just barely, and he came to his senses in the common room.

"How do you feel?" Hera inquired softly, pulling a blanket around his shoulders and sitting down across from him.

"Ezra's _gone_. I felt a lot of fear and a lot of panic, and I couldn't breathe, somewhat, and then I kriffing lost him, Hera." Kanan realized there were hot tears pooling in his eyes, and he blinked them away, because _No, this couldn't be happening, Ezra had to be okay, he always was_ was the only thing going through his head.

He felt Hera's hand close around his, and he looked up to see her crying too.

"Kanan, are you sure he's.. Gone, as in  _gone_? He could just be unconscious.." She murmured, but even Hera knew that wasn't likely.

"It's my fault. I.. I told Kanan we had to get back to the  _Ghost,_ that Ezra would be fine.." Sabine's voice shook as she sat down, blinking back tears and curling up a little.

Zeb hadn't said anything, he'd just heard the news and gone straight to the room he shared with Ezra. 

"We'll figure this out. We don't have to leave yet. I promise, Kanan. You need to have hope, ok?"

".... Okay."

 

\----

 

Ezra's eyes slowly fluttered open, revealing that he was in a bunk not too different from his onboard the  _Ghost._

The first thing Ezra noticed was that his head hurt, and that he was quite dizzy. The idea of sitting up currently seemed like a daunting task.

He was wrapped in about 5 blankets, and he reached up to find his head was bandaged. Everything sort of ached, and his ankle was a bit sore, but other than that, he was pretty sure he was okay. 

"How're you feeling, kid?" He heard the same gruff voice that belonged to the person who had rescued him, and he looked up.

His rescuer was a tallish Kallerian man, middle-aged but fairly muscular. He had skin that was a dark green, crossed with black stripes and marking here and there. There was something vaguely familiar about him, his air of speaking specifically, but he couldn't quite place it.

"Painful? But not dead, so that's a plus." Ezra's voice was croaky and weak from disuse, and he tried a slight smile.

"You're lucky, kid. You'd almost been under for two minutes. Any longer and you would've been dead." There was almost a note of concern in the man's voice, and Ezra winced. What if Kanan thought he was dead?

He tried his best to send some reassurance through the force, hoping he would get the message.

"Thank you for rescuing me." Ezra's voice was relieved and full of gratitude. Hera was going to kill him. 

"Not a problem, kid. And the name's Kasmir, Janus Kasmir." He smiled a little, more of a smirk, really. 

"That name sounds familiar for some reason." Ezra chuckled a little, and decided he was in a good enough state to walk.

He carefully pushed back the blankets and slid off of the bed. His knees almost gave out from under him, Kasmir quickly rushing to catch his arm.

"Be careful, kid, you're still recovering. You got a pretty bad knock to the head, and your ankle was a little twisted." He warned, not unkindly. 

"I've had worse. And my name's Ezra, by the way." He traced the two scars on his face absentmindedly, frowning a little. This guy seemed so familiar, and Kanan had been to Kaller before, mentioned an old friend. It was probably just a coincidence.

"You sure it isn't Caleb, kid?"

"Uh... Yeah, why?"

"Never mind. Old friend of mine reminds me of you." Janus chuckled, and noticed the lightsaber Ezra had at his belt. He didn't say anything, though. Ezra's hand automatically reached for his lightsaber, and Kasmir put his hands out in a gesture that meant "calm down, calm down." Ezra relaxed a little. "Don't worry about it, kid. I'm not with the empire."

"That's always good to hear."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kanan gets Ezra's message, and Ezra gets sick. Pneumonia sure can take a lot out of a waterlogged street kid.
> 
> In other words, Ezra thinks he's being a burden and just manages to worry Kasmir and worsen his own condition.

"Kid, Ezra, you're zoning out." Kasmir muttered, snapping his fingers in front of Ezra's face.

"What? Oh, sorry."

Ezra had been feeling off all day, the feeling you get when you think you might be getting sick, when your head is a bit clouded and you feel a little dizzy and you know something isn't right. He felt worse than that, though. It was probably just leftover dizziness from where he'd hit his head, but he couldn't shake the chill or the heaviness in his lungs.

"As I was saying, your crew is going to be looking for ya', and in the meantime I have some.... negotiations to handle. You can either go along or stay here,your choice."

"Hm."

"I don't think that qualifies as an answer. You feeling alright?" There was almost a hint of worry in Kasmir's voice, but he was probably imagining it. If anything, Kasmir was worried about Ezra slowing him down, and was going to dump him back out onto the streets into the freezing rain. "I think you should stay here, kiddo. Maybe get some sleep. I won't be gone long." Ezra didn't really hear Kasmir, trying desperately not to cough. His throat was burning and he bit back a whimper, shivers wracking his body.

"Okay." He said quietly, voice weak and a little rough. As Kasmir exited the pilot seat he patted Ezra's shoulder a little, giving him a slightly worried look.

"I have to get going, I'll be back real soon, alright, kid?" Ezra nodded, and shuddered a little. A harsh cough ripped through his lungs, and Kasmir winced visibly in the doorway. "Are you sure you'll be alright on your own?" The Kallerian inquired.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. Just a little tired, that's all." He gave a falsely bright smile, and Kasmir sighed heavily in the doorway, but soon departed.

Slowly, Ezra stood, deciding to make his way back to the spare bunk he'd stayed in before, but just the simple act of standing had his head spinning. He leaned heavily against the wall, another cough tearing through his lungs, feeling like his chest was on fire. With some difficulty, he made it back to his cabin, crumpling onto the bed into a shivering heap. Even though his throat and lungs were burning he felt so, so cold, and he pulled the blankets around him tightly.

Sleep didn't come quickly.

 

 

~~~

 

 

"He's alive." Kanan realized in awe, then frowned.

"Oh, thank the force." Hera exclaimed, sighing in relief. "Kanan, what's wrong?"

"It's just.. His presence is clouded somehow, and he's asleep. Not unconscious, just asleep on his own accord." He noted, and also noted the slight burn in his lungs and the daze that accompanied it.

"I think he's sick."

Kanan vaguely recognized the feeling; it was almost like he had the flu, but no, it was something worse. It would be, at least.

He'd only experienced such a feeling through the force one time, really. One of the other padawans, a friend of his, actually, had contracted something in another system. Their pain could be felt through the force almost the entire time, leaving Kanan-then Caleb- unsteady and a little feverish for almost a week.

Depa had felt it too.

Force, he hadn't thought about his master in years.

It still hurt.

He could still see her knowing smirk, the look she always wore. That had never changed.

Everything else had.

 

 

~~~

 

 

Ezra woke feeling like he'd been hit by a speeder, which seemed appropriate. His lungs burned even worse,and it felt like he had inhaled hot coals. Even then he was shivering violently, whole body shaking.

Kriff.

If Kasmir found out he was sick, there was a high likelihood that he would just get thrown out onto the streets, and from what he could tell, it was in the middle of a downpour. Maybe he should run anyways, he thought. The very idea of being a burden to someone he had just met, hell, anyone, made him nauseous. And on top of that, Kanan was probably worried sick by now..

Ezra got to his feet surprisingly quickly for someone so under the weather, footsteps clattering on the ship's floor. He dizzily used the wall for support, coughing hard, too hard, and he doubled over in pain. Even so, he pressed on, eventually reaching the exit of the Kasmiri and running out into the pouring rain.

He slipped on the slick, wet stones and found himself sprawled on the ground, dazed and gasping for breath. A pained, desperate whine slipped past his lips, and he coughed roughly again, pain tearing through his lungs. His shivering got worse, teeth chattering as he tried to push himself up.

Eventually he got to his feet, and when he started running again he ran straight into Kasmir, and he fell right back down again.

"Kid, woah, take it easy, what's wrong?" The Kallerian gently helped Ezra to his feet, brushing off some of the water.

"I-I don't want to be a burden t-to you, I h-have to go.." His teeth were chattering too much for him to finish, and they only made it halfway up the ramp before Ezra slipped again, landing hard and sitting in a shivering, shaking heap.

"Kid, look, you aren't a burden. I'm not getting rid of you, relax. You need rest, you almost died." Kasmir helped Ezra to his feet again.

"N-no, I'm fine, I swear, I can go, it's ok." His voice was very shaky, and a harsh cough ripped through his lungs, making his chest burn and his eyes water. "T-They're gonna be worried, I have to get back." Kasmir looked at him in worry, slightly incredulously. Ezra responded by making it the rest of the way up the ramp, coughing the whole time, and leaning dazedly against the wall.

"Kid, Ezra, you're not going anywhere. I can tell you that right now. It's pouring outside, and you sound too sick to be standing." The Kallerian man grumbled, and went off somewhere in the spaceship. He came back a moment later with a thick blanket, wrapping it around Ezra's shoulders and frowning a little as the teen let out a quiet, shaky whine and slid to the floor.

"I-I'm okay, I-I p-promise." He got to his feet, voice rising a little. Kasmir backed up. "Just let me l-leave! I'm just a burden anyways." His voice rose and then cracked a bit, his shivering twice as bad.

Yelling proved to be too much for the teenager, as he visibly wobbled on his feet. Kasmir moved to catch him, gently catching the sick teen's arm.

"Take it easy, please, just calm down. Ezra, kid, you're weaker than a Loth-kitten and you've been coughing nonstop. You aren't okay." Kasmir scoffed, and Ezra's body decided that this was too much exertion. The teenager fell to his knees, rough, painful coughs tearing through his whole body.

"'M tired, Kas." He tried to finish the Kallerian's name but trailed off. Kasmir looked over at him in gentle concern and carefully scooped up the thin, feverish teen, promptly carrying him to his bunk and gently depositing him on the bed.

Ezra curled up into a ball, pulling the blankets closer around himself and shivering violently. Another harsh cough worked its way out of his lungs, and he kept coughing this time. Awkwardly, the Kallerian patted his back until the fit was over, and the weak, shivering teen curled up even more.

He still felt freezing cold, his chest burning and hot. Despite this, he was asleep within minutes, curled up in a mound of blankets and snoring softly.

 

 

~~~

 

 

Ezra drifted in and out of consciousness, vaguely aware of something cold being pressed to his forehead. He shivered at this, and tried to push it away, but he felt so heavy, and he blinked hard.

"Thas' cold." Ezra mumbled almost unintelligibly. "I'm cold." He halfheartedly pulled the blankets closer, shivering feverishly.

"Kid, you aren't cold. Your body's just confused and you feel like you're cold, but you've been running one hell of a fever for a while now. Go back to sleep." Kasmir explained softly, pushing his hair back from his forehead and pressing the cold thing to his face again.

Ezra made a sound of agreement,which hurt, a cough tearing through his lungs, and then promptly fell asleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like sickfics too much can't you tell

**Author's Note:**

> This planet looks sort of like a more dull, gray, and wet version of San Francisco, but like, kinda ugly and Star Wars-ish! Just for a visual  
> And don't worry, Ezra will be ok


End file.
